Whether it’s making music or baking bread, Randall Michael Tobin likes to riff. He finds that allowing spontaneity to weave a path through a problem can produce great results. Those results are now available at Random Acts of Breadness in Burbank, where a special mix of flour is used to create a healthy long-fermented sourdough bread.

“I am a producer, composer, songwriter, engineer and orchestrator, but I’m always looking for creative challenges,” says Tobin. When one of his great friends, artist and film producer David Tourjé, had a heart attack in 2017, Tobin started to apply his food research to creating healthy culinary choices. Tourjé is founder of the Chouinard Foundation in South Pasadena, a center for contemporary artists.

“Dave survived his heart attack, and while recuperating discovered Dr. Steven Gundry’s book The Plant Paradox and introduced it to me,” says Tobin. Gundry postulates that foods high in lectins can cause harm to the body, promoting obesity, chronic inflammation and auto immune diseases. A long-time student of “food as medicine” health, this resonated with Tobin.

Tobin says his sourdoughs are made of specially refined flour to limit lectins, while creating a light, flavorful bread.

“Sourdough bread, the way it’s made in Europe—especially France and Italy—is made from organic flours without the bran or germ. This is unbleached white bread flour consisting of wheat and malted barley,” says Tobin, who also uses a light rye flour. Once the bread recipe and process had been nailed down, Tobin and his wife, Cyndie Tobin, started delivering loaves of bread to friends and acquaintances as “random acts of breadness.” People were clamoring for more, but the Tobins didn’t have the necessary facilities to bake commercially.

Their family friend, Tourjé, who was one of the first to try the bread, kept nagging the couple to find a place to permanently establish a restaurant.

“He was just giving stuff away,” Tourjé says. “I was, like, ‘Dude, you need to make money.’” He started scouting various locations, which were rejected by the Tobins, who wanted to keep the shop close by their home in Burbank. When an ice cream and pie shop closed two miles from their home, the Tobins felt fate was calling.

“There must have been angels on my shoulders,” Tobin thought upon spying the workspace, which was already laid out as a bakery and could be easily reconfigured for his purposes.

Tobin said that while baking bread to give away was fulfilling, he wondered if total strangers would be willing to pay for it. So he jumped in with both feet. “When we sold out in two hours on opening day, and in an hour and a half the next day, I knew we were onto something special,” he says.

Tourjé says the popularity of the bread comes from its quality, “It’s very wellmade bread. From the culture he starts with to the flour, everything is super top-of-the-line. Of course he uses superb bread flour. People get addicted,” says Tourjé. “It’s all about creativity. Whether it’s music or baking, Randall Tobin has that creativity.”

In addition to bread, Random Acts of Breadness sells a line of raw butters, coconut- oil-based spreads, honey spreads, tapenades and jams. The bakery also has an extensive line of Ojai Olive Company oils and balsamic vinegars, all perfect for serving on special custom-made bread boards by local craftsmen. The idea is to create “Breadness Baskets” of baked goods and accoutrements that are suitable for gifting, because Tobin has big plans.

“People go to Starbucks for coffee because there is a following and a culture around it. We want to be the sourdough bread Starbucks,” he says.

Random Acts of Breadness
2214 W. Magnolia Blvd., Unit A
Burbank
Order at Breadness.com or 818-562-7303